Ahhh lovely Kasane

About to teach quilting at my old high school :) Not that this has anything to do with the picture but I was looking over some older pictures of my quilts when I came across this. It seems unreal but actually in Kasane this is not hard to find. Early morning sun, all the lovely little baby animals and the protective parents around the shade of an acacia tree.

Other tid bits

Cell Phone connection!!!!
One of our ladies is getting married :) She has had to go up north to her home village to retrieve her birth certificate....all sounds good yes? well in order to keep in contact with her and know all is going well we have made arrangements for her to CLIMB A TREE at a certain time just so she can get phone reception hahahaha. What a funny life we lead here. I should say all our ladies are related one way or the other so we are a familly. Therefor knowing she is safe and well on a bad road is quite important to us...so climbing a tree is a must :)
Here are some other things KQ does like our lovely ornaments and hot water bottle covers. (Yes its cold enough in Botswana for a hot water bottle....just)

PLEASE NOTE:
Again, I am a quilter with fun experiences....not a writer, so dont mind the spelling or grammar. Just enjoy :)

Lion on the loose

LION ON THE LOOSE
Yup you got it. I am so happy to live in this wild land. There is a lion walking around the town somewhere, no one knows where so trust me when I say the kids are inside the gate. Two years ago it was a leopard. This is unusual, not an everyday occurrence at all, but it reminds me of when I first arrived in the States for collage and knew nothing of REAL city life. Then again no one knew anything of my life in Botswana either. I remember sitting at a table with a few new friends and when they found out I was from Botswana they asked in awe "so do you have Elephants wandering around town?" In the beginning I said no, they are out of town, but after a few of these I would just say yes, all around my mud hut. I was a bit of a party trick those days. People would want to invite the African haha (I should point out I am white so quite a few people were shocked back then)
Another story of being an African moving to America. When I arrived for the first time without my parents I filled out the immigration forms. I had never heard the word Caucasian, in Botswana we were called Lackoa. So of course I checked the box that said African American (because thats what I am) Well the immigration officer (who was African American) was not amused. I was confused, I am not Asian, Indian etc what else could I be? When he explained to me what Caucasian was I asked him if he was African. No, well I was born and raised there with an American passport..therefor a TRUE African American, so does colour in America mean something? Because where I came from it didn't. Well that got a good chuckle out of him and a friend he had called over (I think for support in case I was trouble) I cant remember the outcome but they let me go with a smile and apologies (from them to me)
SNOW TIRES how would I know about snow tires? I bought a car at the end of winter, a real scorro scorro (beat up car) well in June I got pulled over by a cop for my tires. I always wondered why they made such a sound but so did my car. When he told me about SNOW TIRES I could not believe people would have two sets of tires, one for summer and one for winter (I had moved to Oregon where it snows maybe one week of the year) I showed him my blue cardboard Botswana drivers licence and told him I came from a desert and had no idea ( my roommate who was with me never told me either) Again some laughter and he let me go but I had to get them changed immediatly.
Well all this makes me sound silly and stupid but who did they call when going camping? ME. who did they call when there was an emergency? ME. and again and again I would come to the rescue when things got tough because I had parents and a country that made me that way. I should also note I never took drugs which many of my friends did and I always was there when a friend needed me. My nickname "McGyver, or African Queen" haha. Ok. Enough of my rambling down memory lane...there are many more stories, but back to quilting with my daughter (8) who is learning all about Steam a seam and how to iron.

Kasane Trip and IQC Challenge

 Elles, warthogs, drives, new store, quilt challenge......yup. The life of Jenny continues.

Its done and submitted. WOW what a year this has been already. This quilt is for the IQCAfrica Challenge. I had made a quilt only to realize that I had done one with inches in mind not cm haha oh the life of me lol. In the mean time I have been to Chobe Game park, one of my FAVORITE places in the world. I visited all the lodges with the kids in to and a friend from "Passion Monkey" to sell our goods. I was so happy to see people loved them and we left everything we had up there. YAY. We came across an Elephant or two you might say, one of who was HUGE and scared the bageezers out of me. He popped out from behind a tree, Elles on all side we had no where to go but go around him and FAST lol.......Warthogs on the lawn outside one of the lodges, playing in the mud and not worried we were 2 feet away. I love this country I live in. All of this and two days drive (not me behind the wheel) with a very bad back and lovely muscle relaxing meds. I hope I was coherent when talking to people. I dont remember much haha. 
We have also decided to move the store to a much better location and pray it works for us. It has much more foot traffic as well as being closer to home for me. Kgale Shopping Center here I come :)

TAFA list

Firstly if you have not heard about TAFA (Textile and Fiber Art) you MUST go see the site. www.tafalist.com I am blown away by all the extraordinary talent on there. KQ is a new member so check out our member list as well. Secondly what a deal if you have a business. Half off advertising till MARCH 20th folks....do not miss this.  (http://www.tafalist.com/sponsor-ads) The site is creating a wonderful place for Textile and Fiber art people like myself. If you are a possible member contact them for submission too. Just love this site.

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=195&dir=2012%2FMarch%2FMonday5

I BEG of you to read this post about "art on bed covers". If you dont crack a smile then I truely appologise.

Please note the prices of the Quilts range from P200 to P2000 with the most expensive one being Kgosi Tau at P6280 :) and it was a larger quilt (NOPE it is on the smaller side just very detailed and framed)

Let me explain, we are having an Art Quilt exhibition to which I have posted about. WELL we get most of the newspapers in town come to things like this. It is a smallish City in a country of just over 2million so news like this is kind of hard to come by. Now, I understand not knowing what a Quilt is. I understand therfore not knowing what an ART Quilt is....but as a reporter if I was to say report on the local Kalahari Desert Race I would Google about it. Check what kind of things they do and what they are about before I go so I know what to ask. Well as you can read this did not happen before OR after.
I must say that I was profoundly happy that during this interview I had a witness or no one would believe me how bad it was (well now they will haha). We both could not believe what she was asking. This I forgave as I was in a great mood and even gave her ideas of what to Google like Art Quilts, Kalahari Quilts, Fiber Revolution....even my blog. None of this was written down as she said she knows how to google and what to look up. OK :)
We have had other good articles but this one was soooooo worth sharing under my experiences of quilting in Botswana. Please read it and have fun. Here is Kgosi Tau again (yes he is King Lion)